Good girl, bad poster

I've made pretzels 3 times in 4 days. They win. Congratulations to them.
Last night I made one of the favorite things I've ever made. It wasn't very pretty but I probably could have finessed it and taken a really nice picture but really, I didn't even think about it until half way through my second helping. Do you see a theme? Big girl loves food, big girl cooks food, big girl must eat food right when it's ready. I will try to give you a mental picture. The chicken is coated in seasoned flour and is fried in butter then removed from the pan where the broccoli is added and seared very hot so it gets brown and stays nice and crunchy tender. Then the chicken is added back along with the sweet sour salty savory delicious thai-ish apricot sauce and all cooked together until hot and then served with cold crunchy sour spicy cucumber salad and hot steamy rice cooked in coconut milk and chicken broth. Then you eat a bit of each in each bite and be glad you did.

I have been wanting to make brownies and zucchini bread and mango ginger bread but a very lovely someone my dad knows sent a Mrs. Beasley's muffin basket and now we are overrun with slightly soggy, slightly stale, kind of eh baked goods, but they are baked goods nonetheless, so until someone (me, tonight) throws them away, I can't really add to the pile.

But keep your eyes peeled, that's all I'm saying.

Tonight is ribs and barbecued chicken and french fries and salad. So in case I forget to take pictures, you can dream about it tonight.

Kisses.

Apricot chicken
adapted from another blogger whom I can not remember, I saved it a really long time ago and my system of saving didn't account for having to give credit but thank you!!

All measurements approximate.

Stuff for apricot sauce:
9 apricots, halved
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp ginger chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
zest of 1 lime

Stuff for chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sliced thinly into strips
1 cup white flour
2 t salt
1 t pepper
6 tbsp butter
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets and cut in half

Stuff for coconut rice:
2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp salt

Place all the sauce ingredients in a food processor and puree. The desired flavor is sweet, salty, sour and spicy all at once. If it's too spicy, squeeze some more lime in there and add a little sugar. More fish sauce counteracts sweetness (be careful!).

Put all of the rice ingredients in a heavy pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 18-20 minutes.

Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a flat container and drag the chicken strips around in the mixture until all of them are covered. Fry them over medium-hot in the butter until golden brown on both sides. This should take about 5-10 minutes per chicken strip. Once the chicken is fried, remove from pan. Add the broccoli to the hot pan and fry until bright green and lightly browned. Add the chicken and sauce to the pan and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Serve over the coconut rice.

Thai Cucumber Salad

adapted from Bon Appétit August 2001

Makes 6 servings.

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 sliced, seeded red jalapeño chili
1 garlic cloves, minced
2 English hothouse cucumbers, halved, thinly sliced
! shallot, very thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped lightly salted roasted peanuts

Whisk first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Place cucumbers, onion, and mint in large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve.

My mom would have loved these

My mom loved pretzels. But she did NOT love soft pretzels. She likes her meat cooked to death and her fruit hard and sour. Maybe she was just being ornery. Very possible.
But she would have definitely loved these pretzels, even though they're soft. They're kind of chewy on the outside and crispy on the bottom and soft on the inside and buttery and salty. And they're all gone. No joke, they were out of the oven at 12:05p and it is now 1:03p and my dad and brother are eating the last of them. Granted, there were only 7 and I ate at least 1.5 myself. I think I will probably be making another batch before 24 hours have gone by. This time I will maybe try to make them more pretzelish and less dough ballish, but maybe not. They would make a damn good sandwich this way.

Soft Pretzels
adapted from someone's blog who thought these were as close to Auntie Ann's as you could get and was definitely wrong (no offense, they're just not)

1 1/2 c warm water
1 1/8 t active yeast
2 T brown sugar
1 1/8 t salt
1 c bread flour
3 c flour

2 c warm water
2 T baking soda

Kosher salt, to taste
2-4 T butter, melted

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar and salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a bowl with a little melted butter and turn dough over to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one hour.
Prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 T baking soda in a pie plate or shallow wide dish. Whisk until dissolved.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
After dough has risen, punch down and pinch off handfuls of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 in or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel into soda solution and place on baking sheets covered with parchment. Allow pretzels to rise again about 20 minutes. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with salt, and enjoy!

Hippie Jam

My parents used to be hippies and lived on a commune in Boulder Creek, CA. Most of their friends now are people they met there and a lot of them still have at least a little to do with the place which, incredibly, is still in existence. They still have hippies in that part of the world. When these people come to visit they will often bring jam and honey which they make there. It's incredibly good but neither of my parents are big jam eaters so it tends to hang around for awhile. Then three things happened at once. Martha Stewart published this recipe as her "cookie of the month," I was in New York and had bought some sparkling sugar because I have always wanted to make something with it, and I came to stay at my parents house where the jam is. Not "at once" exactly but in close and coincidental fashion.
These cookies take a long time to make and also coincidentally, I have pretty much nothing but time right now. Lucky for these cookies because normally it is not my style to do tedious and time consuming cooking with many steps. They aren't hard but they just take a long time, blah blah, everyone always says that. I guess because it's true. Doesn't really make it sound less annoying though.

Oh p.s., the place my parents lived is called Camp Joy. Doesn't seem that funny to me but somebody I once told that to still tells me it's the most hilarious thing ever. Perhaps it's amusing to you?

Jam Sammiches
that's not what Martha calls them

2 1/2 cups cake flour (or substitute all purpose flour using 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons for every cup)
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 c sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 T heavy cream, plus more for brushing
1 c jam of your liking
sanding sugar

Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in yolks and vanilla. Add half of flour mixture and mix until combined, then add cream and mix, then add the rest of the flour and beat until well incorporated. Shape dough into 2 squares and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or more.
On floured parchment, roll dough into a 1/8" rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both for 30 minutes.
Spread jam over one piece of dough and top with the other. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter (about 2 1/2") and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies until golden, 16-20 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
I baked the scraps too, what the hell, better than throwing them away.

Mexicasian

When we went camping recently we got some chicken wings from Vallarta that were very suspiciously huge but so incredibly delicious. I suppose they're probably steroided and fed bird seed until they're the size of turkeys, but somehow it's not so offensive when they're Mexican because haven't the Mexicans been growing and eating chicken for thousands of years? Apparently yes because these wings are friggin delicious. Somebody knows what they're doing. They come all spiced and ready to go so I just grilled them. Seven giant chicken wings for $5. That's the recipe.

I did make the soup to go with them, however, and it was fantastic. I was a little skeptical after I had put it all together and it looked a little boring. Don't worry. Let it cook all the way until it's done and you will be very happy. It's the easiest soup I've ever made and pleases the part of me that only likes asian foods. Normally I HATE sundried tomatoes but it sounded so crazy that I decided to give it a chance and it totally works in this because it doesn't have that stupid annoying flavor, just tastes like slightly chewy reconstituted tomatoes. Yum.

Red Lentil Soup
adapted from Marcia's Kitchen

4 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 c red lentils
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 inch knob of ginger, minced
3 oz dried tomatoes, chopped (not packed in oil)
6 c chicken stock
16 oz can coconut milk
kosher salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
sour cream or creme fraiche

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium high and add the onions. Cook for a few minutes until slightly softened and add the carrots and celery. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the lentils, garlic, ginger and sundried tomatoes. Cook a few more minutes until all is fragrant then add the stock, coconut milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Garnish with sour cream or creme fraiche.

The guitar my dad is MAKING! (update)

I hate chocolate chip cookie posts

Everybody knows how to make chocolate chip cookies and everybody likes them different. Today I melted the butter instead of creaming it and it was good, so there you go. My aunt Mary is here and she loves chocolate chip cookies so I made these for her. Somebody had sent us the NY Times big fancy wait 3 days recipe. Yuck. I never had a worse ccc.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 1/4 c flour
1 hefty teaspoon salt
1 hefty teaspoon baking soda
walnuts, broken
pecans, broken
chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter and add the sugars. Transfer to a bowl and add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix until just combined and then add the chocolate and nuts. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes. Drop spoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Cool slightly and transfer to cooling racks.

Salads good and not so good

Last night I made some really delicious chicken parmesan with spinach fettucine and homemade tomato sauce and I didn't take one single picture. It didn't even occur to me until I was thinking about cookies, so about 2 minutes after the dishes were done. What a dummy. So, yeah, it was great and it looked really pretty. Trust me.

I did finally make the pasta salad the night before. I should have stuck with the original plan, caesar with chicken and pasta. What I made was okay but not great judging by the response from my eaters. Pretty much total silence. I got one 'That was really good, thank you' at the end but that was from a very polite lady (not related to me). And when my brother tried it yesterday he didn't even finish the little bit he took. Yes, I noticed. It looks good though, right? Especially in the before picture.

Here is one that will not disappoint. It's not pretty, so don't take it's picture, but it's delicious. Obviously it can be adapted with whatever you like, but the last 3 ingredients are key. I always use pineapple as the base and then add mangoes or peaches or whatever seems good. Here's how I did it this time.


Ginger Lime Fruit Salad

1 pineapple, cut smallish
1 white nectarine, cut same size
1 yellow nectarine, cut same size
2 pluot, cut same size
green grapes, cut in half
lots of candied ginger, minced
juice of one lime

Toss all together being careful not to mush it. I make the whole thing in a big tupperware and eat it all day long. It's only good for about 2 days, but I've never had a problem with that.